


a foreign still

by chilipepperconverse



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: (shrug emoji), Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Random & Short, Short, Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Spoilers, anyway, here's this, i'm glad the devas have their own tag, it's basically just a narration of gundham's execution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 18:28:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19183327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chilipepperconverse/pseuds/chilipepperconverse
Summary: Gundham wasn’t a coward.It had never been hard for him to do things that would have made others shrink away in fear or disgust. He was, after all, assisted by beings from another world. The Devas possessed the forms of harmless rodents, nestled in his pockets or scarf, holding him aloft with their promises of power. With this sort of shield, Gundham had forgotten how it felt to be fearful. It just wasn’t a familiar sensation anymore.Until now.((A very quick retelling of the end of Chapter 4 through Gundham's POV! The title is from the song Slow Life by Of Monsters And Men!))





	a foreign still

**Author's Note:**

> hi so uhhhh I'm back again!! after literally what, like a year?  
> Anyhoo I went to my first year of college and got into Danganronpa lmao. that aside i wanted to do a writing exercise and my friends suggested something about Gundham. Whiiiich turned into this. They said it was a good read so I figured I'd post it! Hopefully since it's summer I can write some more stuff, we'll see what happens :p  
> Enjoy!

Gundham wasn’t a coward.

It had never been hard for him to do things that would have made others shrink away in fear or disgust. He was, after all, assisted by beings from another world. The Devas possessed the forms of harmless rodents, nestled in his pockets or scarf, holding him aloft with their promises of power. With this sort of shield, Gundham had forgotten how it felt to be fearful. It just wasn’t a familiar sensation anymore.

Until now.

The drone had taken him far from what had come to be a twisted kind of home. Jabberwock Island flowered out beneath him, green and dishonest in its beauty. Gundham winced as the aircraft began its careless descent. With trembling hands, he pulled his scarf over his nose, breathing in the scent of alfalfa and paper bedding. It did little to calm his nerves as he set eyes on an approaching stretch of arid landscape, flanked by red cliffs.

The machine hit the ground with an unceremonious _thump_. A door to Gundham’s left slid open, letting the grit and hot air hit his face as a harbinger of his coming punishment.

It was an odd thing to call it in this case, Gundham pondered as he exited the vehicle. A punishment implies that you broke a sacred rule. And yet, had he not done exactly what the beast had asked of him?

He did not regret killing Nekomaru. It was a necessary sacrifice, to be certain, but it went deeper than that for Gundham. The man had fallen with honor- he had known that his death would be what freed their peers. Killing him was an act of mercy, as backwards as it may have sounded.

Gundham felt the hamsters scurrying in his coat’s inner pockets. Wordlessly, he fished them out one by one and placed each gently on his shoulders. He inhaled slowly. In the distance, there was a rumbling sound. Rhythmic, like the drumming of thousands of hooves. Gundham chuckled dryly. A stampede, how original.

He eyed a young tree standing lifeless in the center of the valley stretch. It would likely be the best chance he’d have at saving his hamsters once he called on the Devas. Gundham lowered a branch, leaning his head forward and clicking his tongue softly. The hamsters waddled haphazardly onto the thin branch and stared at him, wide-eyed with the terror Gundham felt in his heart but did not show upon his face. The drone that carried him here buzzed overhead, no doubt broadcasting back to the trial room. His friends were watching his last moments... the thought sent Gundham’s mind reeling, but he kept his stance firm. He was dying, not for his crime, but for the ones who he had freed.

With renewed conviction, he pulled back the wrappings on his left arm to reveal the runes carved into his skin. In the presence of the Devas, they began to glow a brilliant, shimmering purple. The four hamsters stirred, their eyes now glowing the same color. Out from their bodies swirled four dark spirits with no definite shape. The Devas had been evicted from their hosts, and Gundham could finally call on them for the power they had promised him. He held out his rune hand, murmuring the summoning spell before the spirits could vanish. They complied, condensing into his palm and vanishing beneath the skin.

Satisfied, Gundham turned to see the stampede fast approaching. It was now or never.

He would be lying if he said he hadn’t seen this coming. While his friends had been investigating his crime, Gundham had been devising a plan for this very moment. He reached for the nape of his neck, and felt the long dowel he had snagged from a closet in the unholy “funhouse.” The rod felt light and agile as he swung it down to his side. The beast Monokuma rode on the back of the unidentifiable creatures barreling towards Gundham.

The mage struck the earth, swinging to create a perfect circle around him. He heard mad cackling in the distance as he finished the seven-pointed star. Working at breakneck speed, Gundham wrote the spell that would give the Devas the instruction to obliterate the demon that had plagued this land for too long. The rumbling was closer now.

Words and sigils fell from his hand, through the dowel, and into the ground with blinding speed and precision. Once the circle was complete, he cast the rod aside, shut his eyes, and clasped his hands together.

All around him, the symbols glowed that same bright purple, shining with the force of the Four Dark Devas of Destruction. Their power surged through him as the stampede finally approached. The ground shook frantically, Earth herself stirring at the trespassers upon her surface.

The creatures were upon him now, and nothing was happening. The Devas had not yet come to his aid. Gundham kept his eyes closed, but swore under his breath. _I command you_ , he urged. _To put an end to this-!_

_CRRRACK!_

The pain was instantaneous. With no time to recover, another bull bashed against Gundham. He had been knocked from his circle, the Devas had fled his body. He was light, fragile, and alone. Under him, a horn wedged itself into his leg before the creature tossed its head in the air, taking Gundham’s body with it. Through the blood staining his eyelashes, he saw the sky above him, and thought it looked closer than ever before.

*****

Gundham groaned, feeling his body firmly pressed against the dirt by the phantom weight of Monokuma’s stampede. His nails dug into the earth as if to search for any remaining semblance of the power that he had been falsely assured. Though for all his efforts, his strength was rapidly failing him. As he breathed, a wheezing sound emanating from his torso filled his head with alarm. The edge of his vision was blurry, too. Gundham resigned himself. He didn’t have much time left.

A small collection of squeaks and chittering, however, caught his final bit of attention. His hamsters, now purely his beloved companions, were alive and scampering towards him.

Gundham smiled weakly. _At least they would make it_ , he hoped. He pushed aside his guilt at failing to stop Monokuma. He didn't have to be a hero for everyone. No matter what the horrible bear did next, no matter what traitor stood against his friends, he had at least saved the creatures that counted on him the most.

He closed his eyes once more.


End file.
